The Global Biodiversity Information Infrastructure (GBIF) is an intergovernmental organization for the free and free dissemination of biodiversity data from all over the world via the Internet to support scientific research, promote biological conservation and promote sustainable development.
GBIF is created from an OECD working group called the Mega Science Forum Working Group and formally constituted in 2001. It is structured as a network of national nodes with an international secretariat in Copenhagen. Currently (April 2020) it comprises 59 countries and 38 international organizations.
GBIF’s priorities are focused on the level of agencies, with collections being its main objective. Currently, the four programs under way at GBIF are: Technology and Interoperability (Inventory, Discovery, Access - IDA), Catalog of Names of Known Organisms (ECAT), Digitisation of Natural History Collection Data (DIGIT) and Outreach and Capacity Building (OCB).
GBIF is conceived as a network of interconnected databases that aims to be a basic tool for the scientific development of countries and contribute significantly to a better protection and use of biodiversity on the planet. Actualmente (abril 2020) GBIF da acceso en todo el mundo a más de 1.400 millones de registros de biodiversidad procedentes de más de 50.000 bases de datos. Access to the data and its metadata is direct through the international data portal (or the national data portal for data and metadata exclusively from Spanish suppliers).
Spain is ahead of other European countries in the consumption of biodiversity data, according to the recently published statistics on the use of the GBIF network. In the global context, with more than 100,000 visits per year to the GBIF portal, Spain is the first European country in terms of the number of consultations. The high use of the GBIF infrastructure in our territory is an indicator of the power of biodiversity research in Spain and the importance of its management, as well as being a reflection of the degree of implementation of the new scientific infrastructure of GBIF.
National Node of Information on Biodiversity
The node GBIF Spain (GBIF.ES) was created as a result of Spain’s accession to GBIF in 2001 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding by the then Ministry of Science and Technology. This ministry entrusted the CSIC with the implementation, development and coordination of GBIF activities in Spain. The CSIC, through the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the Royal Botanic Garden, carried out this task by launching the Coordination Unit in 2003.
The national node GBIF.ES is articulated as a network, constituted by interconnected databases (317 at present) belonging to 99 centers or institutions (research centers, universities and Spanish public administrations depository of collections and databases with information on biodiversity) and by the Coordination Unit. The current contribution of GBIF Spain amounts to more than 38 million biodiversity records.
Difficult access to information on biodiversity is a major obstacle, not only to the progress of science but also to proper environmental management and sustainable development. In this sense, the relevance of GBIF is evidenced by making available to everyone updated, representative and scientifically valid information on biodiversity, which will make it possible to carry out studies on a scale hitherto unapproachable (models that explain the distribution of species, predictive models based on climate change, etc.). and improved decision-making related to the conservation and use of biodiversity.
